"I am not, nor have I ever been, a fan of Scott Fitzgerald's work, either his novels or the adaptations for film. However, The Last Tycoon is about as good as you're going to get it."
Obviously hasn't read Gatsby carefully, nor watched the film?
Nothing much wrong with The Beautiful and Damned, if you're a certain age, either.
share[deleted]
I'm also not a big fan of Gatsby. I don't think I read it all that uncarefully, either.
shareAgreed. Fitzgerald was not much more than a third-rate magazine writer, truthfully. Even as an adolescent I felt he was so overrated.
Allen Roth
"I look up, I look down..."
Sacrelige! Gatsby and The Beautiful and Damned moved me beyond belief - he must have been doing something right to be lauded as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. I do concede, however, that Tender is the Night leans toward soap opera - but what a damn finely calibrated soap opera!
shareI can understand some people's affection for Fitzgerald, but I'm not one of them. His work never dealt with really profound themes to be considered as a novelist of the first rank. Really more of a social critic than a fine novelist.
Allen Roth
"I look up, I look down..."
I've always loved Fitzgerald's books and as a child use to acknowledge the possible lack of profundity in his works. However, upon lifelong reflection, I realize how ridiculous that viewpoint is. While his works are elegant soap operas to a large degree, they pierce through to the core of human nature like very few authors are capable of. His writings contain some of the most beautifully arranged combination of English words to ever have been imagined by any modern English author. At least I think so.